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Tuesday, November 04, 2014

Beijing Music Festival closes with tribute to German composer

english.cntv.cn
CCTV.com
02/11/2014
Beijing Music Festival presents unique and quality works in the Chinese
capital every year. This year, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the
birth of Richard Strauss, the festival closed on Friday with a tribute
to the late German Romantic composer.
"Thus Spoke Zarathustra," the opening theme kicked off the concert
with Orchestra de Paris under the baton of Paavo Jarvi. Immediately, it
filled the concert hall with infinite space. In this symphonic poem,
Strauss hopes to depict humanity not in search for eternity, but rather
struggling to transcend religious beliefs. Yet in the process, the
music seems to discover something even more powerful.

Beijing Music Festival closed on Friday with a tribute to the late German Romantic composer.

"Thus Spoke Zarathustra," the opening theme kicked off the concert with Orchestra de Paris under the baton of Paavo Jarvi.

German composer Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss was one of the most versatile and talented composers
of his generation, equally at ease in the concert hall, recital hall,
ballet, cinema, and the opera house. His artistic career spanned nearly
eight decades, and he composed in virtually all musical genres.
"Burleske" in D minor for piano and orchestra was composed in 1885.
Meant to demystify the symphonic medium, the composer juggles with the
piano and orchestra as if they were light as feathers.
"Strauss was a very passionate composer, a brilliant writer,
orchestrator. He wrote very sensual, passionate and refined music. He's
best known for his operas, his symphonic poems, there are also some
chamber music and of course many songs. For the Piano he didn't write
that much. This is a yong piece, and I think this is a special piece.
You can already see the brilliance of his musical personalities," says
Nicholas Angelich, a pianist.
Born in the US in 1970, Nicholas Angelich began studying the piano at
the age of five with his mother. At the age of seven, he gave his first
concert with Mozart's Concerto number 21 in C Major, K. 467. Eight
years later, he entered the Conservtoire National Superieur de Musique
in Paris, where he has lived for over thirty years. Touring frequently
around the world, Angelich says.
"Everthing in your life influences you as an artist. In a way that's
very good. Sometimes, it's very difficult to live like that but it's
something we always have to learn and try to develop. After a while, you
feel like a gypsy, which is not bad, but you have to try to find your
own truth," he says.
Now in its 16th year, the annual Beijing Music Festival brings
leading artists in classical music to the Beijing stage, while also
hosting master classes, community outreach concerts and community and
education activities. And it's drawn many fans who are serious about
classical music.
"Richard Strauss's music is not widely performed in China, so I really wanted to see it in concert," says a woman.
"I used to be an opera singer, so for me this is not my repertoire to sing, but it's my repertoire to love," says a man.
While the Chinese audience has seen hundreds of performances of
Beethoven, Mozart and Wagner, few are familiar with the works of Richard
Strauss. The Beijing Music Festival hopes that this closing concert
dedicate to Richard Strauss will not only please the audience but
educate and inspire them as well.